Sunday, July 26, 2015

It’s been far too long since I’ve last professed my love for
Mystery Science Theater 3000. I’m
going to blame this on a combination of my crazy graduate school schedule and
my love of Netflix. During the last two years, I haven’t had a lot of free time
to watch TV, and thanks to internet-streaming I’ve gotten far too lazy to put
actual disks into a DVD player! However, I do have many glorious MST3K box sets, and I feel that it’s
important to show my husband gratitude for buying them for me. I know Mystery Science Theater 3000 XX was
released quite awhile ago, but I haven’t sung its praises online yet. This
collection includes Project Moonbase (episode
109), Master Ninja I (322), Master Ninja II (324),and The
Magic Voyage of Sinbad (505).

Project Moonbase
is an early episode with J. Elvis Weinstein as Dr. Erhardt and Tom Servo. This
is one of the episodes that I never saw when the show was still on the air.
This episode also includes a Commando
Cody Short before the forgettable feature. I have watched this movie
multiple times, but I can’t really recall what happens in Project Moonbase. I know there are astronauts, and I think they get
married.

Master Ninja I and
Master Ninja II are both from the 3rd
season, and I’m glad they came together in this set. These “movies” are
actually stitched together television episodes about a white boy, his pet
hamster, and a master ninja teacher. My favorite part about these episodes is
“The Master Ninja Theme Song.”

The robots pointed out that The Magic Voyage of Sinbad is suspiciously Russian. I’ve read
“Sinbad the Sailor,” and I am going to agree with the ‘bots. This surreal,
dubbed film in not Sinbad, but it’s still a pretty decent episode.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

I recently read Wonder
Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948 by Noah Berlatsky.
This publication is pretty new; it just came out this year. I read it as part
of my research for a class I’m taking this summer.

All Star Comics #8 illustrated by Harry G. Peter.
(I can only guess why he used his middle initial. Seriously, why would someone name their child "Harry Peter?")

Before I read Berlatsky’s Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism, my main source of knowledge about
Wonder Woman came from my husband’s series of lectures on the Justice Society
of America. I knew that Wonder Woman’s non-hero name was Diana, she was
supposed to be an Amazon, she was the JSA’s only female member so they made her
the secretary, and the creator was a polygamous man who was really into
bondage. Noah Berlatsky’s book included all of this information, but he flushed
out many more details with background information to make the reader more
interested in Wonder Woman as a character and the early publications.

I really wonder who the target audience is for this text. I
read it as part of my research for my Master of Fine Arts degree, and the
author referenced other writings that I was only exposed to during graduate
school. Berlatsky’s writing style was less formal than many of the other art
history and art theory texts I’ve have to slog through during the last few
years. He’s text was actually quite enjoyable to read, and his sense of humor
showed through especially when he critiqued contemporary media that featured
female lead characters. While I’ve never read or watched Twilight or Fifty Shades of
Grey, I enjoyed how Berlatsky tore them apart by analyzing the tropes and
stereotypes they fulfilled.

Berlatsky began his text by addressing that most people are
familiar with the icon of Wonder Woman, but many have not read the original
stories. The bulk of the book was about William Moulton Marston, Harry G.
Peter, and their stories about Wonder Woman. Harry Peter was an illustrator who
drew other comics and Gibson Girls. William Moulton was known for his work as a
pop psychologist, and he wrote Wonder
Woman under the nom de plume of Charles Moulton. When compared to other
superheroes, Wonder Woman is tied up the most by a large margin. 27% of stories
by Marston and Peter included bondage. Captain
Marvel, which placed second, only has 3% of its stories featuring
characters bound. Wonder Woman was tied up so often because Marston personally
enjoyed it, and he wrote “Women are exciting for this one reason – it is the
secret of women’s allure – women enjoy
submission, being bound.” Tying up Wonder Woman wasn’t just a way to appeal to
the male gaze, but Marston thought it would be a good way to teach readers the
joys in submission and restraint!

Despite the themes of submission and bondage, there are some
radical and empowering themes. In Wonder
Woman # 13, she declares, “You see girls, there’s nothing to it! All you
have to do is have confidence in your own strength!” Marston and Peter
constructed their stories so readers could identify with the heroes and victims
regardless of gender. This is unique because most people who create comics,
fine art, movies, and television follow the idea that men are the ones who look
and women are the ones who are looked at. Having a strong female hero during
the 1940s was pretty important too, especially since World War II required
women to break traditional gender roles.

Overall, I feel as though I am expected to like Wonder Woman
just because she is a female superhero. There is a huge shortage of female representation
in comics and other forms of media, but I’m not going to enjoy Wonder Woman
just because I have a lack of choices. While I think it’s great that there is a
female superhero who is as strong as her male peers, I have a difficult time
looking beyond flaws. Noah Berlatsky also addressed contemporary Wonder Woman comics, and he did not like
the “New 52” reboot. I remember Ash griping about the “New 52” event when it
was happening, so I found Berlatsky’s rant particularly amusing.

At the very least, I can appreciate Wonder Woman because she
isn’t a one-dimensional character. Berlatsky wrote, “Wonder Woman had to be a
supersoldier and an icon for peace –
which is sort of like having to do everything Captain America does but backward
and in heels.” After reading Wonder Woman:
Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948, I feel like I
should go through Ash’s comic hoard to see if he has any Wonder Woman stories.

Monday, July 20, 2015

I wish I had something interesting to share about my
husband, but he hasn’t been giving me much material. Lately, he’s been doing
his best impression of a slug on our sofa while binge watching House on Netflix. This doesn’t provide
me with a lot of entertainment other than looking up the inaccuracies in the
show just to annoy Ash.